Promoting Women’s Property Rights Project in Eastern Uganda…

This project was aimed at addressing property injustices committed against women in Eastern Uganda particularly Jinja and Mayuge Districts implemented for two years from 2017 to 2018. This program started in 2017 and is still ongoing. It is aimed at addressing property injustices committed against women in Eastern Uganda particularly Jinja and Mayuge Districts. It is done by building the capacity of Community Facilitators (CFs) in legal, human rights, mediation, and communication skills to tackle this challenge. At inception, the affected women were sensitized about their property rights, legal provisions, and avenues to access justice. This was done alongside empowering them economically with skills and start-up capital to boost or start their own businesses to improve their income and livelihoods. The property injustices that women grapple with a range from denial of property inheritance for women and girls, denial of rights in property acquisition, sale, or disposal, men taking control in the sale of farm harvests, men using proceeds from women’s sweat to marry more wives, men forcefully demanding the loans and savings women acquire from village savings and loan schemes as well as banks and so many other injustices. This program is supported by the Finnish Foreign Ministry in partnership with Filantropia Finland. While attempting to address the said challenges, the need to integrate some innovative technology-based services to enable women to report cases of abuse and injustice to the available justice mechanisms was evident as this was curtailed by the limited communication platforms to receive, report, and exchange information in regards to the abuses they face on a daily basis. Since 2021 todate, URI has attracted new partners like Finish International Non-Governmental Organizations (FINGO) whose support enabled the initiation of a Community Based Voice and Message Service Platform to increase women’s access to communication and information technology to report their cases to the relevant justice centers available within their reach, particularly through the trained Community Facilitators. This experiment piloted the use of innovative technology by community facilitators and has been able to create a communication network for evidence-based reporting and documenting information about violations of women rights at community level in a timely and efficient manner. This initiative shall be introduced to the duty bearers such as Local Councils, law enforcement organs, CBOs, religious and cultural institutions and others to help in strengthening the referral system.